Navigating The World Of Bottled Teas

I’m a lucky teacup- Kat loves hot tea all year round, even in summer! But dearies, she does enjoy a nice refreshing iced tea now and again. As much as I hate to admit it, since I like to be the one to get all the attention! Kat often tries new bottled iced teas when she sees them in the store. There are so many to choose from and many aren’t to her liking. But she enjoys picking up a new bottled tea now and again. It’s convenient and thirst quenching. Sometimes she’ll even come across one that she loves.

Dearies, the other day Kat came home with a bottled green tea, and I started having fond memories of our trip to Japan. In Japan you can find walls of bottled teas in convenience stores and even vending machines. Wouldn’t it be great to see bottled unsweetened teas instead of sodas in our vending machines? In Japan green bottled teas such as sencha, genmaicha, and houjicha and very popular. They also enjoy iced barley tea, mugicha. This nutty, toasty tea is caffeine free and delicious.

Years ago there were only a few bottled tea choices in our stores, and they were all heavily sweetened and flavored. These days there are a number of flavored teas, but also unsweetened choices. There is a wider variety of teas including oolong, and white teas. In case you find yourself in the grocery store in need of a quick thirst quenching sip, here is what you’ll find in the refrigerated case:

Sweetened teas: There are many bottled teas that have a varying levels of sweetness. Some like Honest Tea are lightly sweet, and some can be almost as sweet as sugar. When Kat is in the mood for a sweet tea, her favorite is ‘half and half’ which is half tea, half lemonade. The tea is lemony and a little sweet, but still has bold black tea flavor. She enjoys the Harney & Sons bottled version of this tea. It’s the perfect balance of tea, lemon, and light sweetness.

Flavored teas: Most of the sweetened teas are also flavored. You can find everything from fruity flavors like peach and raspberry to more tea-like flavors such as honey and jasmine. There are also a few unsweetened flavored teas on the market. Kat likes flavored teas from Ito En’s brand Teas’ Tea, in flavors such as rose, jasmine and lemongrass green.

Kombucha: Kat’s absolute favorite bottled tea is kombucha. She loves this fizzy, tangy drink. You can find it in a variety of flavors, and some even have chia seeds added. Kat loves the little seeds, they give the drink an interesting texture. If you’re curious to learn more about kombucha, check out my previous post.

Unsweetened teas: When Kat picks up bottled teas, she always looks for the unsweetened teas first. Ito En is a brand that has a nice selection of unsweetened teas. She also enjoys Wegmans unsweetened bottled teas. Kat remembers looking everywhere for unsweetened bottled tea and was amazed to find it in Wegmans. Her favorite is the green tea. It is pure grassy green tea flavor, and nothing else added.

Dearies, what bottled teas do you enjoy? If you see a new and exciting bottled tea at the store, I’d love to hear about it!